-2- Reminiscences of an Exec ed stern Looking back, I'd have to say that my Air Force career that he had discovered. Marano has never forgiven us for could be used as a good example of the old saying, "it isn't that! what you know, it's who you know that counts". Touvell also managed to widen the concrete on the road After basic training,for example, I was assigned to an in to our Site with concrete the British were using to in­ AF unit because one of my home-town buddies worked in Base crease the thickness of our runways. Col. Lewis, the Group Records. He pulled my card from a group headed for Infantry CO, found out about it after the concrete was wel 1-hardened-- and put it into what he figured was a better assignment - (Marang.did you tell him?) and I would hate to tell you some Geiger Field and the AF. And when I was assigned to my of the words that I found an officer and gentleman like Col. first Unit up there, the CO turned out to be an old Univer­ Lewis knew. sity classmate. (I didn't remember him, he didn't remember me, but he had seen it on the Classification card.) It was just at the last Reunion that I learned for sure who burned the hay-stack on VE Day. Young, you did not go He had the First Sergeant give me the full treatment of to London the day before it burned--------------------------it had to be the day KP, Guard Duty, Latrine orderly etc, to let me know what it after! was really like, and then he asked if I wanted to apply for OCS. And when did I next run Into the head of the OCS Board Who could forget Cap. Robinson, the MP officer? After that approved me? Good old Col. Goldman who was Group Exec his 4th or 5th visit to our site accusing some of our men of the 385th when I was assigned there after 6 months as a of doing things that we all know they could not possibly Base Officer in Ephrata! have done, Col. Van called me into his office and told me that if I couldn't get the 550th to join the Group, he'd For that matter, when I got to Ephrata, my old unit was damn well find someone who could. I don't think I ever got stationed there, and all of my old enlisted buddies were proper credit for protecting our fine, clean cut, upstand­ around to wise me up on ail the things that were wrong with ing group of young paragons of virtue from the vicious the place. And what did the Base Commander decide to do attacks that were being made on them! with a new 2nd Lt. that he didn't need? He asked me to dig around and write him a report on what could be done to im­ Remember when we had to pick up all the officers' 45s prove conditions at the Base----------------------and I was always good at because we had a Lt. who liked to lie on his bed and shoot writing reports. holes in strategic spots of the pin-up girls pictures he had on the ceiling above his bed? The next day, what happens My brand new wife had been a school teacher, and who do but a Wing Inspection (they always came to our site because we meet but a fellow North Dakotan who was Supt. of Schools it was the best). This guy found 50 or 60 pistols lying there--------so she ended up teaching school and making more loose in our Supply Room, just waiting for some German para­ money than I did. chutist to come in and grab them. Ammunition, too, come to think of it. How I survived that one I'll never know—they I didn't know how good we had it, so I asked my CO if probably couldn't find anyone willing to take the demotion. I was going to fight the whole rest of the War in Ephrata. A week later I found myself reporting to Col. Van who pro­ How about that 200 Mission party when one of our fine ceeded to tell me to get rid of my car (I didn't have one), yoang officers tried liquor for the first time, no doubt. to send my wife home (I didn't), and to get ready for a rug­ He staggered down the main aisle to where the dignitaries ged war in the South Pacific where he had just come from. were sitting watching some British actresses display their wares, threw his arms around General Jimmy Doolittle and When the Squadron Exec of the 550th got in some kind of pulled him over backwards. Col. Van must have warned Col. difficulty, my old guardian angel, Col. Goldman, probably Jumper, because all he said was, "Stern, only in the 550th wanted to prove that his Board had been right in sending me could it have happened". off to OCS. So----------------for ail you guys who have been wondering since 1943, that's how I happened to end up as 550th Exec. TS to all of you----------------- someone had to be lucky! The longer ago it gets, the fonder the memories become. That's what makes those Reunions so interesting. And, In Come to think of it, I almost didn't make it overseas. spite of some 36 years since we disbanded, it makes a civ­ Remember, you ground-pounders, that Troop Train from Great ilian life seem rather prosaic, in spite of a fine family Falls to Kilmer? Fordyce (Group Photo) and I went looking business, 5 kids, 14 grandchildren, and a rich enjoyment for an ice cream cone in Billings (the rest of you found a of life as it is lived in North Dakota. bar close to the Depot). We came back to find the train pulling out 15 minutes early. After a wild taxi ride that And whenever the news-letter runs out of material, I'll took all our money (probably $15), we caught up to the train wri te again. waiting for a freight at a siding. We slunk on the front end to a few catcalls and made it to the back of the train where my old friend, Coi. Goldman, the Train Commander, sat complaining about why the train was sitting so long at the Texas Raiders By David Framer siding. I never thought that my triple by-pass open heart sur­ Two years, 2 months, and 4 days at Great Ashfield had gery would eventually lead to my riding in a B-17 after to be about the best duty a guy could pull during a War, approximately 37 years. Here is how it happened. although we Ground-pounders had to have an uncomfortable feeling as we sat there safe and comfortable while a great Before I was wheeled into the operating room last Feb­ group of flyers were out getting shot at and shot down with ruary, (1981), 1 was approached by representatives of Channel us getting the same 'battle stars' as they earned. 4, KM0X-TV, St. Louis, for permission to photograph my sur­ gery, part of it to be used by reporter Al Wlman for a med­ Every one of our 385th Reunions has brought back memor­ ical series. I signed the release, and while I was still in ies-------some fond, some sad, some hilarious. It's been heart­ the hospital the following week I watched the program and warming to visit with a number of couples who have reminded saw my own open heart surgery. After the program was over, me of what I said when they were asking for permission to I talked to Al Wiman on the phone and the next day he came marry------- but I keep wondering about some of those whose to visit me. marriages didn't work out. What are they saying? Al belongs to a model airplane club and when he found that I had flown in B-I7s, he expressed a strong interest In And whatever happened to good old Sgt. Touvell, the guy World War II planes, and suggested that he come to my house who kept our Site winning those "8est Site awards" every when I was feeling stronger and tape some of my memorabilia inspection because he knew how to get the yellow stains out of the urinals? and do an interview about my flying in World War II. About two months later the taping and interview were He also knew how to "midnite-requisition" some extra held and shown that night on TV. He also used scenes from coal from the 549th coal pile, while their Duty Sergeant was out stealinq it from a British stockpile of World War 1 coal "12 0'Clock High" to illustrate and dramatize the interview. ( continued page 3) -3- dropping our crates from the army truck beds to the concrete Around the 14th of August, Al called me and asked if I docks. After getting the run-around from four dock workers, would like to see a B-17, and when I said he must be kidding, I used a little more persuasive argument to stop their he told me that the Confederate Air Force was flying in a dropping the crates. Needless to say, I was glad we were B-17 to a local airport. It would be followed by a B-24, a leaving the next day.